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Adamson provides Blueprint for Jay-Z tour Dave Acari
APPOINTMENTS
f FBT Elettronica has
announced the appointment of Luigi Paoloni as export manager for Central-South America, Africa (except north), East Europe extra EEC countries. Paoloni spent 17 years at Proel as part of the international sales department management team. He joins forces with FBT’s export managers Roberto Mataloni and Mauro Zazzini. The three are in charge of the company’s export sales for the entire portfolio. www.fbt.it
f Fleetwood Mobiles has
appointed Lise Regan as sales and marketing manager. She comes directly from managing Livingston Studios where she had overall responsibility for facilities. In a further move, Fleetwood has announced that Mike Silverston has taken on the role of general manager of Fleetwood’s facilities, with overall responsibility for technical and logistical aspects of the operation. Silverston has been Fleetwood’s technical manager since January 2000. www.fleetwoodmobiles.com
Jay-Z’s six-date tour around some of the UK’s biggest concert venues proved the ultimate road test for the country’s first Adamson arena system. With London’s Wireless Festival, Cardiff, Bournemouth and Manchester all under their belt, PSNE caught up with the sound crew at Glasgow’s SECC for the penultimate show of the tour. Adamson was specced by tour production manger and Jay-Z’s front of house engineer Bryon ‘Hotdog’ Tate, who had been impressed with the speakers’ performance in the United States where he’s used them on a number of hip-hop shows in the past couple of years. “The Adamson system is loud,” explained Tate. “It only takes a little work to get a really smooth and punchy sound that’s ideal for hip-hop. I was really keen to work with it on Jay-Z’s UK dates.” Tate has a long-standing working relationship with Canegreen and, by coincidence, when he was speccing the system with the company, Canegreen’s Yan Stile had literally just been taking to pro-audio hire company SSE about its brand new Adamson arena system. “We’d just taken delivery of the system and the sub-hire with Yan at Canegreen as its first project,” said
From left: Pete Hughes (Canegreen stage manager), Jochen Sommer (Adamson tech), Bob Lewis (monitors), Adam Field (Canegreen PA tech), Bryon ‘Hotdog’ Tate (production manager/Jay-Z f-o-h engineer), Dan Seal (Canegreen systems tech)
Jay-Z makes full use of the Adamson system at Glasgow’s SECC
SSE’s John Penn. “Of course, it would have been nice to have it out on one of our own jobs, but this has worked out really well. “There’s a lot of pressure involved in putting together a new system for the first time, but this has been made easier as Hotdog was able to get the Adamson system he asked for – and the production team was able to work with Canegreen with whom they are very familiar.” The Adamson system for the tour consisted of 24 Y18 and 12 Y10 line array speakers with 12 T21 subwoofers set up and installed using SSE’s Pro Sight inclinometer. It was all powered by Adamson-specced Lab.gruppen amps and driven by XTA DP226 digital controllers. Both Tate and Adamson’s Jochen Sommer highlighted the unique use of Kevlar cones in the Adamson speakers, particularly in the T21 subs. “The T21 subs are amazing – they are flat out the best I’ve heard. We’re using 12 when we’d need 24 of anything else. And if they can handle a Jay-Z show they can handle anything!” said Tate. Sommer added: “With the T21, Adamson has breathed new life into the 21” market which was almost dead – the reality was that traditional 21” speakers were slow and lacked
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punch. But our use of Kevlar has turned that around and we’re producing these T21s with big speakers that work. “The power handling of the T21s is enormous – they can take the full output of the Lab.gruppen FP6400 amp which powers each sub. One T21 can do the work of more than two 2 x 18s.â€? The use of Kevlar also influenced SSE in its choice of Adamson. “Adamson isn’t a massive company, but it’s big enough to do things properly while still being hungry and enthusiastic about its products. It has some interesting developments with its own components, particularly regarding the use of Kevlar cones,â€? said Penn. “When we ordered the system we asked about spares and they said we wouldn’t need any. Now we know why! “Adamson does all the components itself, other than the compression drivers, because its feeling is that they are an exact science and only JBL makes them consistently‌ and in my experience I’d agree. “In 2002 we got a 32-box JBL VerTec system with three high-frequency drivers per box. In the three years that we had the system we only went through one diaphragm – and JBL replaced it under warranty as they said it was faulty. In my eyes, JBL are the people for high frequency.â€? Ground fill and monitor speakers were all Meyer – MJF212 wedges, a combination of Meyer MSL4 and 700HP for sidefills and PSW2 drum fills.
Both front of house and monitor mixes were handled by Digidesign D-Show Profile consoles, each accompanied by a D-Show FOH rack and two D-Show stage racks. “I haven’t used many of the latest digital desks, but I’ve a done a fair bit of work with Digidesign desks and used them with Mary J Blige in the US, so I’m pretty comfortable with the Profile,� said Tate. “It’s so compact and you get access to 96 channels without moving! “Navigation is quick and easy with nothing more than a couple of clicks from the main screen. The only outboard I’m using is a TC Electronic D2 delay – all the reverbs and everything are in the Digidesign. “The digital console is a huge help, especially on the festivals where we can plug into eight channels of BNC and go. More and more folks are going down this route these days.� In practice, Adamson more than lived up to expectations with a spectacular and hassle-free show at the SECC for both Jay-Z and tour support Mark Ronson. And if the sound quality of the show didn’t speak for itself, meeting the needs of a perfectionist like Jay-Z and keeping a 4,000-strong Glasgow crowd happy speaks volumes – not just for the system, but also the team behind the production. Q
APPOINTMENTS
f Kamil Swobodzinski, sales
Jay-Z enjoyed a ‘spectacular and hassle-free’ show
www.electrovoice.com
www.adamsonproaudio.com www.didgidesign.com www.jbl.com www.meyersound.com
director advanced communication technology at EVI Audio since February, has been given additional responsibilities, having been appointed sales director critical communication systems for EMEA. Formerly international trade marketing manager (sales) with Blaupunkt, Swobodzinski will have responsibility for turnover and profitability.
Tour support was by Mark Ronson
The Adamson array
f UK distributor Henley Designs has appointed Simon Powell in his first position after university. The appointment reinforces the new division that has been established within Henley to look after professional audio products. Describing his new appointment as his dream job, Powell says he is looking forward to gaining experience of marketing, sales administration and liaising with DJs, retailers and journalists. www.henleydesigns.co.uk
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